Kyle Tucker signed a 4 year, $240m contract with the Dodgers. In my opinion the Cubs trading for Tucker last year and giving up a top prospect is one of the worst decisions made by Jed Hoyer. The mistake the Cubs keep making is that they seem unwilling to pay for the positions of need and then to appease the fans just sign whatever player regardless of the position, and that is a bad way to run a team.

Last season the Cubs need was at third base and Alex Bregman was available, but the Cubs were not aggressive in filling their need and for some reason settled on renting Tucker for a year. The only way the trade for Tucker made sense is if the Cubs had extended him before the season started, once the season started with no extension it was obvious the Cubs had made a mistake. Redemption for the front office would have been a deep playoff run, but instead Tucker was injured for most of the second half of the season and the Cubs lost to the Brewers in the divisional round.

Now the Cubs have signed Bregman to finally fill their need, but they could have done that last year and not given up any prospects in the process. It would have been much smarter for them to have taken the money they gave to Tucker and spent it on Bregman. All around, these were bad decisions and even bad business decisions by the owner. Of course, Ownership showed their bad business skills by extending Hoyer last year before the trade deadline, effectively rewarding Hoyer for mediocre work.